[vortex-bug] transfer errors with 3C905C-TX-M

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, Giuseppe Ciaccio wrote:

> Sergei was talking about file corruption in FTP transfers!  This cannot
> depend upon the device driver: TCP/IP has well known error detection
> mechanisms, as it must provide error-free communication.
> If the reported problem is real and reproducible, it would imply a flaw in
> the protocol...

The 3Com cards (or at least some of them) provide hardware checksumming
for IP, UDP and TCP. The 3c59x driver uses them (look around the end of
boomerang_rx()) and signals the upper levels that further checksumming is
unnecessary. If there is a hardware bug, it will go unnoticed.
(I don't have at hand 3Com's driver, so I cannot check if they also use it
or not).

Actually, talking about hardware bugs, memory problems might cause the
same data corruption. Can you try to run some memory tests ? Running
Windows on the same computer is NOT a good indication.

Sincerely,

Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De